Duong-table



JNO. C. NICHOLS, OF WOBURN, MASSACHUSETTS.

DINING-TABLE. n

Specification of Letters Patent No. 6,665, dated August 21, 1849.

- To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN C. NICHOLS, of

fWoburn, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Dining- Tables; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings Figure 1, denotes a top view of my improved dining table. Fig. 2, is a side elevation if it. Fig. 3, is a view it of as it would appear if turned bottom upward. Fig. 4, is a transverse and vertical section of it taken across the folding leaves.

The upper part of the said table is composed of a circular revolable platform A, inclosed by and made to revolve within a stationary concentric ring 0r platform B, which is supported on a pier or column C, by four or any other suitable number of strats or bars D, E, F, G, fastened to the pier and to the platform, and made to eX- tend from the pier to the platform as seen in Fig. 3. The circular tablet or platform A, has a shaft H, Xed to and extended down from its central part, and slipped into a bearing or stirrup- I, placed within the pier. The shaft is also made to be supported-by, and slide vertically through or in a bearing a, at the upper part of the hollow pier. The stirrup I, which supports the lower part of the turning shaft, is suspended to a chain or cord K, which passes upward over a pulley or sheave L, and is attached to a lever M, which turns horizontally on a fulcrum M at one end. On laying hold of the lever, and moving it outward or away from the pier, the stirrup will be raised, and at the same time will elevate the shaft H, and the table A, and so as to carry the plane of the top of the latter, somewhat above the top surface of the concentric surrounding tablet B. When this takes place, the above described eleva.- tion of the tablet A, above the tablet B, will be preserved by the Ifollowing described mechanism.

To the under side of the pier on which the tablets are supported, a bent lever c (Z, is aiXed, or turns on a fulcrum c, as seen in Fig. 3. One arm of this lever, viz. the arm c, is passed in a direction toward the upright shaft by means of a spring f. The

other arm, viz. the arm d, has a cord g, attached to it. This cord is carried horizontally a short distance from the end of the arm, and at right angles to the inner side of the arm, and thence up a hole L, and.

through the interior of the column or pier, and thence out of the upper part of the same.

When the lower end of the shaft H, is elevated above the lever c cl, the spring 7,

will move the lever, and throw or force thatl arm of it against which it bears directly across the hole m, in the lower part of the pier, and so as to enable the shaft H, to rest and turn on the arm of thelever, whenever the power which elevated the shaft and its tablet be withdrawn from the lever M. By laying hold of the upper end of the click string g, and pulling the same the lever c 0l, will be moved or retracted, in such manner as to allow the shaft H, and its tablet A to descend, and t-he latter to fall down to the level with the surrounding tablet B.

The center tablet A, may be divided into three parts n, 0, p,that is into a middle 0, and two leaves a, p, each of which leaves may be hinged to the middle part by hinges g, g, so as to be capable of being turned from a horizont-al plane down into a vertical one.

In connection with the same the circumscribing tablet B, may be divided into four parts 1, s, t, u, the parts s, and u, being firmly fastened to the strats D, E, F, G, and having two parts 1', t, hinged to them by hinges as seen at v, c, o, c, and so as to permit either or both the parts r, t, to be turned from -a vertical into a horizontal position and vice versa; each part 1', or t, being supported when in a horizontal position by a turning arm N, so hinged or applied to the post or pier as to be capable of being turned around horizontally throughout an arc of either ninety or one hundred and eighty degrees as occasion may require. Each folding leaf or part n, or p, may be sustained when in a horizontal position by a long turn button P, aixed to the middle part 0, which on being turned out so as to lap upon the leaf will hold it up in a horizontal position. The joint of each Hap of the tablet A, should be made in a straight line with that of the adjacent flap of the tablet B, as seen in Fig. 1. When this is the case the leaves or flaps of the tablets A, and B, may be turned down as'represented in Fig. 5, which is an end view of the table with its leaves turned down into vertical positions.

The object in making a table in the above described manner has been to enable'each person who may be sitting at and around it, to readily serve himself to whatever may be placed on the revolvable middle part A. To do so he has only to lay hold of said middle part, and revolve it horizontally,

- leaved table.

placed on the tablet B, from improperly interfering with the movements of the rotating tablet.

2. Furthermore I do not claim the invention of making a tablet of a fixed part, and one or more movable or turning leaves, but what I do claim, is the above described manner of constructing and combining the leaves and middle parts of the two tablets, whereby the two leaves on each side of the center of the table may be simultaneously and together turned down into a vertical position so as to cause the table to have the advantages usually possessed by a common two In testimony whereof I lhave hereto set my signature this 19th day of March, A. D. 1849. i

JOHN o. NICHOLS.

Witnesses:

MARSHALL M. GIDD, GEORGE C. NICHOLS. 

